Monthly Archives: November 2011

So, I painted my toe nails an awesome neon yellow with glitter. It’s very obnoxious, and very sparkly, and inside light doesn’t do it a lick of justice. Outside it’s like BAM OMGYELLOW!…And yes. I know tomorrow is December, AND that it snowed this morning….but I’m still wearing sandals. Don’t hate.

Anywho, so yesterday I was rolling across the floor (short distance, more like turning around in the office chair and scooting 2 feet) over to the light source in the room to take nail-wheel pics, when I caught my pinky toe nail on a Rubbermaid tote. It pulled the nail upwards, and right off my foot! ;_;

Well…almost right off my foot, because it was hanging on, and I had to rip it off. The whole nail being pulled up didn’t hurt, ripping off what was left did, and was quite a bloody mess.

Owie.

Yupp…owie…kinda blurry…but owie…

Onto my mostly gifted Haul…except I did purchase the Glitter Caddy…

My mother bought me another one of those CVS brand holiday nail polish sets…GLITTER this time! It’s called Shades of the Season, and comes in a 1yard plastic tube. Not too bad really, I liked it for the most part. You do need 3-4 coats to get a true bottle color though…buuut….loooook!

It’s sooooo….iridescent and aqua and sparkly and reflective and pretty!! The entire set pictured above cost 9.99, and I would have seriously paid that JUST for this polish alone. I was worried once I put it on my nail wheel, it might loose it’s awesomeness, as is the case with most polishes…but…

It so didn’t!!! How freakin’ awesome is that! In the above photo, it is shown over black polish. I tried it over white as well, and it was pretty enough, but not worth photo-ing. The one bad thing about this: If you plan to wear it over another color, you need to be sure you’ve got a thick amount on your brush, and re-dip often, or else it WILL drag up and almost melt the base color. It’s what happened to the white I tried it over…and yes. The white polish was COMPLETELY dried on my nail wheel.

For those curious, the colors next to it are L to R: Piggy Polish: 0270 You’re Blue-ti-ful over white, OPI: Zombody Luvs Me over white, (Glitter Color), Ulta: Not From Concentrate over Black (I’ve mentioned this in a previous blog), Sally Girl mini iridescent no name on bottle, and Sally Hanson: Hard As Nails in Sugar Kisses over black…..Yes…this is my iridescent wheel. Thank you for asking.

The only other thing I can say for the Yard of Color is that the Red is really more of a magenta color when used, and the gold is a very pretty tope color.

So…onto the Basic Elements Glitter Caddy…

In the Caddy you get the following 6 neon colors: Yellow, Orange, Purple, Blue, Green and Magenta

After a long search for cosmetic glitter in a good enough OMFGYELLOW color, I gave up and figured I’d try Wal-Mart’s craft department as a last stitch effort for glitter, with out having to go to Ulta and get some NYX pigment….So for 4 bucks, I picked up the Glitter Caddy in Neon. I’m glad I did! It’s really kinda the perfect shade of yellow…Pictured above, it’s mixed with a larger iridescent glitter I had to give it more depth, and is layered over Salley Hanson’s Hard as Nails X-Tream Wear27 Mellow Yellow.

Anywho…All in all I do like the glitter, and it works well for nail art. You really do have to pack it on there however, but that’s the case with most glitters.

All require a base coat of your desired color, and a heafty clear top coat. The green and orange, I’m not trilled with…The green really doesn’t sparkle, and the orange is more of a blue/green/silver sparkle then orange…Mind you I do love Aqua colors, but I got this for the ORANGE.

The pale pink glitter on the wheel is by Milani: 89 Disco Lights. I put it on my glitter wheel for a good comparison, since it’s a shade of glitter polish I own that is ALL glitter little bit polish. All in all, I’d say the Purple, Blue, and Magenta rocked. The other three were more chunky when applied, but are still okay.

The red and black glitter I’ve mentioned in other posts with nail art, and are by LA Splash Cosmetics, Glitter Splash cosmetic glitter: http://www.LASPLASHCOSMETICS.com. I’m so excited I found the brand for this cosmetic glitter, I just love how it applies to nails, and it’s super affordable! I’ll be heading to their website later…

Okay, checked out their site! They do sell nail art glitter, and it’s pretty inexpensive compared to the cosmetic glitter! I’m excited to try it, their other products look pretty awesome too…like their eyeliners. OooOoo I am drooling a little.

Ok, so this wasn’t the post I was planning to do today. I had this whole nail review glitter art thing to post…I even took pictures! But something happened to me today that I wanted to share, because I think good deeds need to be paid forward.

I went to the Pharmacy at the Giant Eagle, located in Middleburgh Hts, OH. Their Southland location to be exact. I’d been there before to fill prescriptions for this and that over the years. Lately however, with out saying too much about things I said I wasn’t going to dwell on, our prescription needs have grown, and the ones we need are quite costly.

The women of the dance community here in North East, OH have been so thoughtful and giving this past month, and I’ve been gifted over 100 dollars in gift cards to Giant Eagle (among other place, GE just happened to be the most common place.) So, that being said, I knew this RX was going to cost a fortune, as all the docs and nurses have told me thus…so to GE I went!

I was in line, and fully prepared to pay an arm and a leg, and use my gift cards. When the woman behind the counter (Who’s name was Kim) gave me my total I was very confused. It was only 27 dollars. I was expecting it to be at least 90. So I asked her if she had the right order, and she said yes, then explained to me that they swiped through a discount code for me, because if they hadn’t it would have been 266 dollars. I started to cry.

I am so grateful to the workers at Southland Giant Eagle Pharmacy. They were SO busy. I had a 45 minute wait, and then I was the 8th person in line. So busy, but they took the time to help someone in need. I am so truly touched by their kindness. I was on the phone calling the 1800 number to report their good deed before I was even in my car. I told the woman my story through tears, and she’s going to nominate them for an award. It was really the least I could do for Kim and her coworkers.

I broke a nail today…and I had just gotten my nails all long and lovely again. So sad….so I chopped them all down. Further more….The breaking nail killed my awesomely awesome marble manicure. ;_;

I decided to go ahead and re-marble them again. Success.

In the process, I also decided to organize my nail polish, since Mom was nice and got me a Color Theory gift set from CVS. So, rounding up everything I went to haul it downstairs, and didn’t even get out of my dressing room before the latched popped and it went CRASH.

Sadly, I had one fatality. A bright pink from the Color Workshop collection from WalGreens…and on further inspection this evening, I’m 99% sure Color Workshop and Color Theory are the same thing. So it wasn’t a huge loss, as the exact same pink was in my new collection.

The colors are….m’eh. They’re alright, nothing fantastic quality wise. There is a black with sliver glitter that stood out, but it took 4 coats to become opaque. Maybe over a black?

Onto the Nail Art…

I was very proud of this manicure. The exact shade of gold and neutral shimmer escape me, as I borrowed them from my mother. Both as Sally Hansen’s Complete Salon Manicure. Black lines are the black Sinful Colors nail art bottle.

A little blurry…My Halloween mani….as in the one I wore ON Halloween. OPI He’s My Boo with Sinful Colors nail art black over it to make the stitches.

I really loved how this one came out. Yellow is Revlon’s Top Speed 305 Electric. I took a cosmetic glitter called Glitter Splash, and dabbed it on the tips before the base polish dried completely, then added a top coat. The glitter is called Glitter Splash, and I bought it at Ulta shortly before Halloween. I wish I had more info on it, because I love the way it applies to polish.

What’s next…Not sure. It’d be a little silly to do another marble manicure, as my new one is pretty darn close to the one I just posted. I’m thinking maybe a collection post? We’ll see what I feel like doing.

Here’s my mini nail polish haul over the past couple of weeks….for some reason a new shade of nail polish makes me happy. And I’ve needed a lot of happy lately! lol

Lets start out with the China Glaze set. I went into Sally’s looking for an obnoxious yellow glitter polish for my toe nails, and didn’t find one. I DID however find that CG had out their holiday sets!! With the Sally Club Card, the trio pictured above was only 6.99!! That’s like getting two bottles of China Glaze for FREE!! For 8.99 they have another set that comes with a wine bottle cork, which I may have to go back and get because I did love the colors…

Anywho, so about this set. The three colors are as followed from left to right: 1020 Pointsettia, 1001 Twinkle Lights, and 1004 Holly-Day. I love love love Holly-Day. It’s such a yummy rich green! I keep looking at it and expecting it to be matte, but it’s not. It’s got a nice low sheen to it. Pointsettia threw me for a minute. I expected it to be a deep red when applied, but the first coat is more of a magenta. After the second coat the color becomes more true to the bottle, and a lovely perfect holiday red. Now Twinkle Lights….I’m torn on this. I can’t decide if I like it or not. Gold glitter with red and green glitter. It’s fairly thick, and gives good coverage in two coats. It reminds me of X-Mas ornaments from the 1950’s that my Nana and Papa had on their tree.

Moving on….While looking into flu shots, I of course walked through the cosmetics section…and Call You Later 932 from Sinful Colors caught my eye. I’m not a huge fan of SC brand. I’ve gotten a gold and neon green in the past from them and was highly disappointed by their color pay off, and the fact I had to apply like 10 coats for any true color….anyways….Since it’s a glitter, I knew what I was getting into. I’m really pleased with it to be honest, and 2 coats pretty much gets you full true color. So koodoes for that! Did I mention it was a dollar?? It was on sale…

Ulta was having a huge sale as well a couple weeks ago. BOGO on their cosmetics!! Nail polish too! A few of the polishes I snagged arn’t pictured…I couldn’t remember which ones were new or not. The ones that ARE pictured are as followed from L to R: Bam-Blue-Zled, Dance Teal Dawn, and Concrete Evidence. Not pictured are: Vintage Violet, Not from Concentrate, and Green with Envy…..Bam-Blue-Zled I was a little disappointed with. I was hoping it’d be more blue, it comes out violet, not perrywinkle as I had hoped. It’s still nice and creamy though, and I do over all like it. I LOVE Dance Teal Dawn. It’s just such a nice rich awesome aqua. Love love LOVE it. I’d been looking for a creamy almost matte grey for awhile, and I found it with Concrete Evidence. Not disappointed in that color in the least. Applies well. Love it. I don’t have much to say about Vintage Violet, it’s a violety pink. Mostly pinkish. Not from Concentrate is a sheer orangey-gold color. It’s pretty over black, but doesn’t stand alone well unless you like REALLY sheer colors…which I don’t. Green with Envy is so dark green it’s nearly black. Just like Dance Teal Dawn, but more green. I love it. Over all, I’m really happy with Ulta’s quality. I was leery to try the store brand at first, but I’m so pleased with them!

When I was at Ulta, I picked up a Barielle color called Sailor’s Delight. It’s a creamy pink. I like the way it looks and applies, it’s very rich and creamy. I do not like the smell of Barielle nail polish. I’m not sure about this brand, I’ve looked and looked and it’s not something they carry anymore I think. I have one other polish from them called Cashmere, and I’ve never seen them elsewhere. Huh.

Last…Milani. I was telling my mother about my search for an obnoxious yellow glitter polish…and she translated that into Gold. It’ll work for now I suppose….although my toes are not nearly as obnoxious as I had hoped. L to R: 103 Gold Lame and 3D Holo 510. Gold Lame…yupp. It’s a gold polish. lol I’m not sure what to say about the color. It’s true to the bottle, and yes. It’s gold. 2 coats will do. 3D Holo is fun, it’s sparkly and gives the same sort of effect the Tron line of China Glaze did. Iridescent glitter is pretty. It’s not the chunky yellow glitter effect I want though.

Friday I think I’ll get a bunch of nail art up from the past month…as this post was a bit lengthy.

I always try and tell my students “When you’re a performer, no one in the audience cares if you’ve had a bad day. No one cares if your husband is a jerk, or if your job sucks. All they care about, is that you’re a beautiful dancer. When they look at you on stage, all they should think is ‘Wow. A bellydancer, she’s so pretty. She must work in the studio all day long and do nothing but dance.’ And that’s it.”

So I’m going to try and keep this on focus, with tutorials, reviews, and pictures of nail art and makeup I’ve been playing with in the past month. I’m thinking this blog is going to help me keep a creative focus while my life is spinning around me. Sorry in advance if doesn’t. I’m sure there’ll be some days in the near or distant future where I’ll slip and need to vent

I’ve got a bunch of nail art I need to get uploaded dating back to before Halloween. (Because that’s when said life exploded.) So in the next couple of days, I hope to get the pictures up and the products listed below them. Also, I’ve got a review and a mini haul to put up….

In theory my new lap top will have a camera on it, and I do want to start doing tutorials. Mostly for my students to make all of our lives easier.

First Mini Review: No pictures needed.

Sally Hanson’s Strengthening Top Coat

Last night I water-marbled my nails. It’s getting easier, and I’m very happy with the results for the first time. I also tried out the top-coat I bought at Wal-Mart since my old China Glaze one was all empty.

Since I haven’t been able to get out much these last few weeks, I hadn’t gotten to Sally’s to purchase the Seche Vite top-coat everyone raves about….I was however able to swing by Health and Beauty while at Wally-World and I picked up the Sally Hanson Strengthening Top Coat for about 3.39. I was in a pinch, and wasn’t sure when I’d get to Sally’s…so I gave in. (I actually made it to Sally’s on Sunday, that’s besides the point.)

You know…I’m thrilled with the Sally Hanson Top Coat!! I was worried it’d be thin, or chip, or make the color streak even after it’s dry (Like O’Rly’s topcoat does every fricken time I try it!). SH did none of those!! It’s thick, and smooth, and thus far just lovely. I had missed a spot on one of my nail tips that was a tad rough from the marbling, so I applied it over the tip and down the nail and it blended in with the already-there top coat just perfectly. My nails feel nice and smooth, no unevenness from the marbling. LOVE IT.

I’m a little sad to say this…but I like SH’s topcoat over China Glaze’s….and I’m pretty loyal to CG.

For an investment under 4 bucks, I totally recommend SH’s Strengthening Top Coat.